Hypothetically Speaking, Of Course
by Sub-Zero MKA
Summary: Sequel to Conversation Between Friends. Melinda and Grant may be having trouble admitting certain things to one another.


_**A/N:**__ I was rereading Gumcrunch's great MayWard story and decided to do my own rendition. This is probably a sequel to Conversation Between Friends. Hope you all like it._

_**Hypothetically Speaking, Of Course**_

It was near nine o'clock in the evening and the Bus was as quiet as a funeral. Fitzsimmons were busy in their lab, toying with whatever formula or technological trinket SHIELD ordered them to work on. Skye was holed up in her room playing Candy Crush on her smartphone. Coulson was admiring his newly laminated Avengers Edition Captain America trading cards, courtesy of Director Fury himself. With no missions, and with everyone doing their own thing around the plane, Grant was left to his own devices.

That was fine, as he was where he had come to enjoy spending all of his spare time. The weight room/gym area. He loved it. Whenever he felt like being alone or wanted to very away from himself and the terrible thoughts of the past, he punched away at the punching bag or pumped iron until he couldn't feel his arms anymore.

The gym also just so happened to be the same place where Melinda did her Tai Chi. In lululemon yoga pants. No. That had _absolutely, positively nothing_ to do with him liking to be in the gym so much. Nope, not even when she bent over and he got a clear view of her breathtakingly tight tush. Most assuredly not when stretched her arms back, presenting her supple chest to him, barely concealed by her black sports bra. And most definitely not when she, when finished, did a split to stretch her legs and back out during her cool down period. Like she was doing right now.

He was not staring at her, while secretly fantasizing about thoroughly testing the full extent of her flexibility, while sitting in the bench doing bicep curls. He wasn't, and he'd fight anyone who said otherwise. He did _not_ have a crush on Melinda May, to hell with whatever the hell Phil Coulson tried to insinuate. They were just bedmates, friends with benefits, if you would. Nothing more, nothing less.

He was okay with that. _I'm totally okay with that,_ he assured himself as she finished stretching and approached him. Instinctively and absolutely not out of some macho dudebro desire to impress her, he flexed his impressive bicep as he placed the weight back on the rack.

Nothing but an eye roll. Not even a small smile. That didn't hurt his ego, by the way. He was _so_ above needing to impress hot women with his muscles to make himself feel better. "So," he started, but then stopped when he realized that her had nothing to talk about. She turned to him, elegantly sculpted eyebrow raised expectantly. The pressure was on. "Um, h-how's it going?"

Oh yeah. Really smooth.

"Fine," she replied curtly.

_She does that with everyone,_ he reassured himself. She was always curt, so it wasn't his unsmooth smooth talk. "Cool, cool. Enjoy you're stretch?"

"I did. Enjoy the view?"

_Trap! It's a trap!_ Grant panicked internally, not wanting to seem like some kind of pervert. He scoffed. "No." Her other eyebrow raised sharply. "Yes." She smirked and turned back around. His eyes _did not_ trail down to get in a good gander at her backside.

"Enjoying the view now, Agent Ward?"

How did she know these things? "…yes." If this was her idea of small talk, then it left quite a bit to be desired.

"Good. I told Coulson that we're having sex."

"Good to know that you're just as vain I am." Not that he was vain, or anything. Quite the opposite, in fact. His nickname back at the Academy was Grant "Too Humble" Ward.

"What you call vanity I call confidence." She turned to face him again, and they held each other's gaze for nearly half a minute. "Did you hear what I said?"

"Sure. 'Confidence'." Grant smirked and crossed his arms over his chest.

"No. About what I said to Coulson."

"Oh, that; yes, I heard you."

"And you're not upset? At all?"

He pursed his lips and then shook his head. "Nope. I'm more confused. About why you didn't at least run it by me first. Since you know, I'm involved with this, too, it taking two to tango." He smirked when a soft groan escaped her.

She shrugged. "It just came out."

"So, you and Coulson were just talking about sex and you thought that that was the best time to divulge our little secret? Like two chatty MIFLs?" His smirk turned into a full on grin when she glared up at him. Seemingly out of both annoyance and surprised.

"I thought you had to be a mother to be a MILF."

"Don't change the subject."

She sighed and stepped back. "We were in Mexico while you and the others were at the SHIELD Academy, and we were talking about secrets. Phil said that he didn't want any secrets to be kept from him, or any of us, anymore. It didn't seem right for me to be keeping this from him while he was going on about wanting there to be no more secrets."

He nodded with understanding. "Okay, that's fine. Still, that mission was a week ago, Melinda. I shouldn't have had to find out about this from Phil."

His voice was low, but stronger than his volume should have allowed. "You're right. I should have told you sooner."

That was as close to an apology as he felt that he was going to get any time soon, so he took it for what it was worth. "Okay." He got up and, after grabbing his water bottle, made for the door.

"Wait." It was his turn to turn and wait expectantly. "You said Coulson told you. What did you say after that?"

"I told him the truth." For a brief moment, he felt kind of like a hypocrite, but the feeling passed.

"He told me that he trusted me to know what I'm doing and when to end it. You?"

"The same." He made to leave again, but stopped when she cleared her throat.

"What did you say to that?"

He pursed his lips again and his glanced quickly at a towel lying on the ground a few feet from them. "I didn't say anything. I left." It wasn't a complete lie. But it wasn't the whole truth, either.

"Really?" He wasn't sure whether she sounded annoyed or slightly hurt over his lack of reaction. "Well, hypothetically speaking, what would you have said?"

Hedidn't respond right away, which likely hurt any credibility his eventual response would have. He spent a few moments trying to determine why she asked that before replying. "I would have felt relieved," he said. He thought that that was a good enough answer to sate her curiosity. "Alright, how did you feel when Coulson said we could keep going?"

"Nothing."

"But, hypothetically speaking, how would you have felt?"

She took a moment to answer. "I suppose I would have been… pleased."

"Not like he had much choice. There isn't anything to break off anyway, right?"

"Right. It isn't like there are feelings involved."

"Absolutely." He did not think about the excitement and elation he felt when Phil said that they could keep having sex. "It's not like I have a crush on you or something." _Why the hell did I say that?_

Something in her demeanor changed, ever so slightly. So slightly that he almost missed it. "Right. This is all just a hypothetical situation."

"Of course."

"And in keeping with that, I would admit that I have some feelings for you outside of the lust I _would_ be feeling for you right now. Which I don't, because this is all supposition."

He nodded firmly, and promptly ignored the not small part of him that didn't believe her. He refused to get his hopes up. Even though she was right here in front of him, admitting that she had feelings for him. "Pure conjecture. Like me saying that I would like to take you out to dinner one night soon." He laughed at the absurdity of it all.

She chuckled. And then she froze completely. "I have to go. See you later," she said abruptly before leaving just as quickly. Before he could even think of saying goodbye, there she went, off into some other part of the Bus.

Speaking as a pure surmisal, he would swear that he say her blushing. But he didn't, because Melinda May didn't blush. And he didn't mind that she left, because he didn't have feelings for her. "It was all hypothetical." He totally wasn't blushing himself, either. Nor was his heart thumping in his chest. And he definitely wasn't excited that she may like him back. Because he didn't like Melinda May. Hypothetically speaking, he may have been in love with her.

_**-END-**_

_**A/N:**__ I hope you guys can detect the sarcasm in there. Hope you enjoyed it and don't forget to review! :)_


End file.
